Safety records improve in two key areas

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of Construction
Boilermaker Employers (NACBE) presented its annual
safety awards to the 2015 top-performing locals from the
Boilermakers’ four U.S. vice-presidential sections during
the Construction Sector Operations conference held at
Marco Island, Fla., Feb. 20-Mar. 3.

Local 587 (Orange, Texas), representing the Southeast
Section, took national honors, with zero lost-time
accidents, zero compensable injuries and zero OSHArecordable
injuries. Lone Star District Lodge Business
Manager-Executive Secretary Clay Herford accepted the
award on behalf of the lodge. The Lone Star District comprises
Local 74 (Houston), Local 132 (Galveston, Texas),
Local 587 and Local 592 (Tulsa, Okla.).

The award was based on safety performance
during 2015.

The three other lodges finishing first in their sections
included Northeast Local 667 (Winfield, W.Va.), James
King, BM-ST; Great Lakes Local 85 (Toledo, Ohio), Tim
Timmons, BM-ST; and Western States Local 11 (East
Helena, Mont.), Jess LaBuff, BM-ST.

NACBE Executive Director John Erickson said the
safety index covered nearly 58 percent of all construction
Boilermaker man-hours worked in 2015. Incidents are calculated
per 200,000 man-hours worked.

The compensable injury rate improved by .5 percent over
2014 to 4.49 percent, setting a record low. (By comparison,
the rate stood at 83.02 in 1990, the first year NACBE began
tracking safety performance.) OSHA recordables dropped
from 1.69 percent in 2014 to 1.54 last year.

Meanwhile the lost-time injury rate for 2015 showed a
slight uptick to .017 over 2014’s 0.16. The record low since
the index began stands at 0.12. Thirty-nine locals had zero
lost-time injuries, down from 40 in 2014. Thirteen locals
recorded zero compensable injuries for 2014, down from
16 in 2014.

Safety awards are based on the lowest injury rates followed
by the highest percentage of Boilermaker man-hours
from NACBE contractors participating in the index.